SubversEd
by Lieutenant Shroom
Summary: The kids get strange disks in the mail, said to hold a longlost game that was never made. However, when they play it they are forced to fight their way through thirteen planes and defeat the Final Boss to stop the Apocalypse. C3- Edd vs Shrogii- up.
1. End of the World

SubversEd

A/N- This is loosely based on Andrew Hussie's MS Paint Adventures, with a scenario similar to Homestuck and other stuff I can't think of now. In this story, feel free to post, alongside your review, an idea for an enemy, scenario or boss or whatever, but remember DON'T TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT IN THE REVIEW IF IT'S PLOT IMPORTANT. This chapter will hopefully be the shortest one at about 4000 words, and you can be assured that chapters will end up averaging around 6000-8000 words once the adventure officially begins.

Anyway, enjoy the show!

/

CHAPTER ONE- End of the World

/

There once was a game-making company called SUBNET.

Nobody had ever heard of SUBNET unless they combed the internet thoroughly, more thoroughly that a lobster combs a rock for food. They existed for one year, and in that one year, they did absolutely nothing notable to the public. The one game they even began to make was called "Shadowsun", and was quite hyped about by computer gamers- though they never knew who was making it.

Rumour stated that the game was so realistic you would feel as if you were living the game- indeed, you would almost become a part of the world inside. Talking would be done by real speech, not rapidly clicking "A". You would have to walk yourself to get anywhere around. It attracted quite a bit of hype before SUBNET disappeared four months before the release date. Nobody could trace where Shadowsun and its mysterious creators had gone, and when they found out a factory had burned to the ground the mysterious game was forgotten forever.

Nobody noticed the SUBNET logo, barely visible in the corner, and they never wondered why the total mass of the factory was less than half the size it used to be. And so the legacy of Shadowsun ended abruptly, ten years ago from the present day. Even years after the incident, with those people who comb videos for errors and solutions to crimes, the connection was only established in late 2008, and quick searches revealed that no disks had ever been made and Shadowsun had been ended.

Or so they thought.

/

It was raining tonight. Not just raining, deluging, with torrents of water spilling from the heavens in coruscating, overlapping patterns that could drench a man in seconds.

Yet, even on such a dark day, a figure was walking around the streets of a strange city. The rain was so thick it disguised its footprints and its visage- one would have to get very close to it to see what it looked like.

The figure broke into a run, sprinting past shops and houses and fences in a straight line. The world began to tighten around the figure, and, when it reached such tension it would shatter, loosed and propelled the figure a mile away through all matter in its way, its mass slinking through the subatomic structure of walls, people and machines. The figure was now at the edge of an old forest, with a sorry-looking building that had obviously been damaged by fire standing just at the edge. A roof of corrugated iron was stretched along the length of the top, barely keeping out the rain. The figure entered by moving through the wall (there were no doors to go through) and lit an oil lamp on the wall. The old-fashioned light spluttered and then lit, allowing the room to be seen in dim light. The figure pulled up to a table with an armchair beside it and set the lamp on it. Now illuminated were twelve brown paper envelopes, all of them identical in every way. The figure opened its black coat, pulled out a small pen and began to scrawl a message on each of them. As it wrote, it tucked the envelope inside its coat and stored it away. Every message was the same, and it hesitated as it picked up the last one. The oil light illuminated it, and the figure took a check on the text written there.

_help us_

Stowing away that last one, the figure pulled up its coat and bent the universe around it, shooting it forward several miles to a quiet, suburban area that had been recently redesigned. The rain wasn't pouring as hard here, but still nobody wanted to be outside. The figure pushed an envelope through the doors of most of the houses, putting two disks through one door at one time. The three it had remaining were deposited through the letterbox of a single house, which perturbed the figure- how many people lived in there?

The figure looked up, and saw the sun rising. For a moment its features were shown by the light- and then it melted into thin air, motes of black dust forming into sharp, angled pieces of circuitry that floated around before lancing outwards in sharp, short bursts of intermittent light. And at once the figure wasn't there.

But had it ever been there?

Nobody would ever know.

/

Ed couldn't sleep. The new cul-de-sac was too different to the old one- he could feel it in his bones. Ever since they lost the old area to new industrial development, they had been moved into council housing at the bottom of Peach Creek in a chain of buildings that were at the foot of a hill. Ed found a bit of comfort in how similar the room he was in to the one he had before- underground, window onto the street. Even so, his new room was strange. Too clean. Too modern.

Too… different.

So it came as no small surprise when the letterbox opened and two objects thudded onto the floor above him.

Looking out of his window, he saw a flash of black coat and a figure running through the rain. Stealthily, he slipped out his bed and crept to the stairs that lead to his door. Slipping through the blackness, he opened the door incredibly slowly and stepped out. There were two envelopes on the floor, by the welcome mat, and as he moved towards one his eyes met a sight that surprised him.

Sarah stood on the stairs, walking down to the door as well. One meaningful glance between siblings allowed for Ed to know that the girl hadn't been sleeping well. Ed moved towards the door, and picked up one of the objects on the packages. Wordlessly indicating to Sarah to pick up the other one, he gripped the bag in his hand and crept down his stairs. There was some writing on the envelope, though in the stygian gloom he couldn't read it. Inside was an object that he couldn't identify.

Ed decided to check it again in the morning, and suddenly found himself tired as he walked to his bed. He fell asleep just as a mote of black dust embedded itself in his window, because sharp and shattered.

/

The figure re-materialised inside a black citadel, similar rain pouring down on the mountainous fortress. As it stood up, the skies became red as a gout of flame immolated it, issued from a grounded lizard-like beast with two small wings and red hide. The guard-dragon had found it.

Suddenly, with a flash of world-defying light, the flames froze and shattered, releasing the figure from their grip. The figure leapt up and landed on the back of the dragon, extending its hand and punching its spine. As the creature roared in pain, the figure withdrew a blade from the folds of its coat and sliced the beast in two. The creature roared, its stomach bursting and coating the battlements in acid.

As soon as it died, its figure flickered and vanished, along with all the fluids that had covered everywhere. Where the beast had stood was a vial of amber liquid, three metal ingots and a sphere of liquid. Upon contact with the figure, they melted into light and flew into the folds of its coat.

Once again, the figure bent reality and shot itself twenty meters into the air, flipping over to another battlement. Knocking on a trapdoor four times, the door opened and a gun was aimed at the figure's chest, but the lowered at the appearance of it. Running down the trapdoor's steps, the door closed and locked. Inside, there were five figures- three men and two women, all in black fatigues and seated at tables, either containing maps, weapons or beverages. The figure threw off its coat, revealing it to be a young woman with brown hair. She walked down and seated herself on a seat and gratefully took a flagon of steaming alcohol. A man with black hair and a limp arm walked over to her, sitting down beside her with his own drink.

"Did you deliver them?"

The woman gave a stiff nod. She relaxed as she belted back the drink, restoring the damage she had taken from the fire and stomach acid. "Been up at the top by the gate to Plane 11. Are you sure those kids will beat the game? Will they even bother after the opening?" She shook her head. "We made the game to be impossibly hard psychologically. It was our own fault that we came here."

The man nodded. "And what do we do about that? We sort our own problems out. All we need are those twelve to get to Plane 10, get up to 13, and help us beat the Final Boss. Then we can kill this damned game forever."

The woman nodded.

"Then let us-"

The roar outside told them they had no time to prepare as a serpentine, horned head came into view from the windows. The wall shattered as another massive head ploughed it down, and all six of the black-wearing figures drew weapons. As the woman charged with her blade, the beast attacked.

/

When Ed worked up, the first thing he touched was the package on the side of his bed.

In the morning light, he slipped the object out of the bag before even getting out of his bed. It was, strangely enough, a disk case, similar to the ones you would find a DVD in. The front, oddly enough, had no words, only a black circle that looked like a dark sun. The back was equally blank, and so was the disk.

Sarah ran down into his room just as he was about to go to hers. "Ed? You know what this is?"

Sarah had changed a lot over the three years since the legendary journey known as the Big Picture Show, her figure developing and she becoming more mature. Sarah did not shout at Ed anymore as she thought it immature (after all, he made terrible sandwiches) and, due to her age and hormones had started crushing on most every boy she saw. She instead looked to Ed as a source of guidance, which lead to more than one awkward conversation.

Ed indeed had changed a lot over the years. After being generally accepted in the social echeladder, he conformed less to the role of "the idiot" and started learning via Edd's tuitions. His room, up until he was forced to move, was still dirty, though he hadn't the time to mess up the new one.

Ed studied the disk holders in his hands. They were identical in every way. Perhaps the logos were of some use?

He pulled up his laptop and logged on to the network. At once, a window opened on the IM program, FriendLog. It was Eddy. Humouring him, he opened the window and began to type.

grymloqRecapitator has logged in  
cashflowFacilitator has logged in  
CF: dude, what the fuck's up with this case  
GR: i dunno, eddy. no text, no nothing. it's weird  
CF: i woulda thought you of all peple woulda known  
GR: looks kinda like the logo of a game  
GR: wait  
GR: you have one too?  
CF: yeah dude, came through the mail  
GR: that's just freaky  
CF: has that horno-bitch got one?  
GR: ya  
GR: and don't call her a bitch  
GR: she ain't like that anymore  
GR: anyway, i gotta go  
GR: breakfast :D  
CF: fine  
CF: herp turp  
GR: i saw that  
CF: damnit  
grymloqRecapitator has logged out

Sarah had already left while he had been talking to Eddy. No doubt she had gone to talk to Jimmy, Nazz or May, her best friends, by the little princessPanther icon that had opened up on FriendLog. He got out of bed, still in underwear, and walked to the kitchen where his dad was drinking coffee.

"So I hear you've got an odd disc in the mail?" The middle-aged man, Roy Winters, was balding and had a tiny chin, which he had passed onto his offspring. He was wearing pyjamas and a brown bathrobe, and reading the newspaper while supping his coffee. Ed's mother was away on a business trip, allowing for him to work later without being forced home.

"Yeah, Dad. But I can't make sense of it. It's just a black sun. No words. No nothing."

Those words struck an odd note with Roy. "Sounds like Shadowsun to me. It was in production back in 2000, when you were five. Made by an oddball company called SUBNET. The company burned down to the ground before it could be released. It was supposed to be some kind of virtual reality game, or something. Impossible lark, I always said."

"Then what's it doing here?"

"Probably some half-baked sequel coined by a fan. Play it! It'll probably be fun." With that, Roy went upstairs to get a shower. When he got back down to his computer, he found another conversation waiting for him.

grymloqRecapitator has logged in  
entropyReactor has logged in  
ER: Hello, Ed! I have a few questions about a disk I got through the door this morning. Any idea what it is?  
GR: hey double d, you got it too? black sun, nothing else  
ER: Yes… (a scientific improbability if I may add)  
GR: my dad said it was a crappy sequel to a game called shadowsun, heard of it?  
ER: Yes, as it happens. It looked to be a great blast. Virtual reality and whatnot?  
GR: 0_0 you were reading gaming magazines when you were 4?  
ER: Ed, I built a mech out of trash and a vacuum when I was seven. Reading a magazine at four is hardly a big leap.  
ER: But do go on.  
GR: well, you know the factory burned down ages ago  
GR: and he thinks some fanatic made a sequel  
GR: i'm gonna run it  
ER: Careful, Ed. It may be a virus disk.  
GR: i will be  
entropyReactor has logged out  
grymloqRecapitator has logged out

Ed opened the disk drive to his laptop and inserted the Shadowsun sequel disk into it. All his windows closed, except, strangely enough, for FriendLog, which hovered around the window.

An interface opened up, written in computer basecode in a basic font, grey text and black background. Unintelligible code ran around the screen, moving at a pace too fast for the human eye to see. Eventually, a loading bar, in monochrome, opened up and began to fill- but at an incredibly slow rate. After ten seconds, the bar had filled, according the gauge on the side, a grand total of 1.2%. Getting the idea that it would take a while, Ed opened FriendLog, looking for his friends online. He found everyone in the council houses was online. Clicking an option, he opened up a text window and began to type.

grymloqRecapitator has logged in  
commandantShepherd has logged in  
CS: hello, no brain ed boy how are you this day  
GR: come off it rolf, you haven't called me that in years  
CS: truth truth  
CS: i trust you are messagophoning me about the disk doohickey that we all have  
CS: i know about this shadowsun  
CS: one of rolfs forefathers came to america to work on its production  
GR: i thought you were the first of your family to come here?  
CS: well cousin lovikov was always an oddball  
GR: have you started running the disk yet?  
CS: yea  
GR: woah, mine's 42% done! faster than i expected  
CS: so is mine  
CS: how strange  
CS: but I must leave now  
CS: there is spongebathing to occur  
GR: see ya rolf  
commandantShepherd has logged out

/

Edd's copy of Shadowsun was working away in the background when he noticed he had mail.

Edd hadn't changed a great deal since the Big Picture Show. He was still completely obsessed with science and technology, having graduated from school with highest honours. He was still a haemophobe, afraid of blood, and he was obsessed with cleaning his room every time something happened to scuff the floors. Unlike the rest of his friends, he had taken to the new council houses as clean areas to perform his work from, and even though he only had been in there a month, he had covered the room from floor to wall with labels- from "chemical closet" to "laptop" to "pillow".

Edd had been subscribed to all the mailing lists that the intelligent would be interested in. Normally he was only given the routine newsletter, but this was marked "URGENT!" and from the American Institute of Meteorology. Intrigued, he opened it.

Subject- URGENT!  
Sender- aiom  
This is a PUBLIC SAFETY ALERT- our far-reaching satellites have detected several strange objects moving at a massive perpetual motion in the edge of the Solar System. These objects seem to be head-

But that was all he read before the Shadowsun installation window manually closed the window and changed the screen, banishing the grey text- instead, there was what seemed to be a camera shot in a completely white void, which soon flickered down into spots of starlight and three numbers at the bottom separated by a colon.

Edd stared at the number.

_That's a countdown!_

Edd's eye caught the envelope on the side of the room. Flipping it over, looking for some sort of a clue, he saw the message left by the figure in black. He manually opened the message again and read it through.

He put two and two together as the solar system came into view on the screen.

"Oh my god!"

_**3:28 REMAINING**_

/

It wasn't often that Ed got invited to a group conversation. But Edd, or entropyReactor, had called all 12 of the kids into one group conversation. Ed humoured him and joined.

entropyReactor has logged in  
grymloqRecapitator has logged in  
princessPanther has logged in  
azureScorpion has logged in  
cashflowFacilitator has logged in  
vermillionAvian has logged in  
yellowPiscine has logged in  
bikechainQuarterback has logged in  
commandantShepherd has logged in  
hottamaleKitty has logged in  
arborAdvocate has logged in  
albinoSquire has logged in  
ER: My fellows, I have bad news! These disks we have got through the mail- how many of you have run them?  
AA: I RAN MINE  
CF: duh you know i ran mine  
GR: i did mine double d  
HK: I think everyone did  
ER: Oh my…  
BQ: And what's the damn holdup? you said you had bad news.  
ER: Do all your screens show the solar system and a countdown?  
ER: With 2:41 remaining?  
AS: Yes What Does That Mean  
ER: I got a message from the American Institute of Meteorology, saying that objects had been discovered by satellites scanning outside the Solar System, moving at a speed exceeding three thousand miles an hour.  
ER: The views from those objects are on your screens now.  
AS: whaat aaree theey theen?  
ER: I believe…  
ER: …meteors.  
ER: Each big enough to kill all life on Earth.  
BQ: What the fuck double d? And we were running these?  
VA: WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! AAAARGH!  
ER: The countdown is how long we have until impact.  
CF: you mean the world is gonna end in 2 mins  
CF: thats bullshit and you know it  
ER: Look at the video feed on the Shadowsun loading screen.  
ER: It's true.  
YP: i never thought i'd die so Young!  
PP: Jimmy, hold on, I'm coming!  
ER: Say your goodbyes now, because the whole word is going to break apart.  
ER: I'm sorry.  
ER: I should have known.  
entropyReactor has logged out

The rest of the conversation was solely consisted of the rest of the kids panicking- everyone worrying about their parents, who had gone to work. Their mobiles weren't connecting, and they had no idea why. If they looked outside their windows and out past the edge of the council housing estate hard enough, they would see squares of black energy, flickering in and out in a barely glimpsed forcefield, blocking their connections and strengthened by every Shadowsun disk active. But nobody cared what was outside apart from the meteor. They knew they were about to die. There were no odds about it.

Every one of them was about to die.

_**0:40 REMAINING**_

Kevin locked his door and sat on his bed, thinking about what might have been. What could have happened? He could feel the world outside heating up. Looking out of his window, he saw twelve burning objects enter the atmosphere. He could see the world below on his laptop, spiralling ever closer. The countdown remorselessly ticked towards the end of the world.

_**0:30 REMAINING**_

Jonny hugged Plank to him as the ground began to shake. The meteors penetrated the lower atmosphere with a bang, and he could see the rugged meteor surface, battered by smaller meteorites in the depths of space. The countdown fell again.

_**0:20 REMAINING**_

Nazz was in her room, looking out the window as the asteroid came ever nearer. She had planned to die as an old woman, having lived a long, excellent life. She had hardly lived that in her childhood.

The number on the screen unabatedly fell.

_**0:16 REMAINING**_

The Kankers were in a group hug, one that they wouldn't break until the countdown, which ticked on a bit more, fell to zero.

_**0:09 REMAINING**_

Jimmy was looking out the window as he saw every object in the way of the bottom of a meteor be stripped away and burned. His house cracked and he screamed as the clock ticked away.

_**0:07 REMAINING**_

Edd looked upon the sight with sadness at his lack of identification as the clock ticked down.

_**0:06 REMAINING**_

Rolf muttered a prayer to his native gods as the clock ground down to zero.

_**0:05 REMAINING**_

Sarah hoped that someone could avert the crisis as her laptop announced there were five seconds to go.

_**0:04 REMAINING**_

Eddy regretted ever running the program in the first place.

_**0:03 REMAINING**_

Ed wished he had taken Edd's advice when he ran the disk.

_**0:02 REMAINING**_

The woman's blade bit bone as she swung her sword right where the horn joined the creature's skull.

_**0:01 REMAINING**_

The world began to crack with all twelve meteors less than fifty metres in the air.

_**0:00 REMAINING- IMPACT ACHIEVED.**_

The world shattered apart as every meteor impacted. There were twelve chain explosions as crust splintered, gouts of fire as the mantle of the planet left its confinement of rock. The seas splashed down ravines in the surface and reacted to create massive bolts of steam in the splintered atmosphere. Half of America careened into the moon, knocking the satellite out of rapidly decaying gravity and into the planet, yet another meteor. The new impact blew apart the core, causing a shockwave to lance out of the broken planet and slice the rock left apart. Every person on the broken world died in bloody explosions, their corpses flying through the air and into space before burning up.

The human race became completely extinct.

/

PLANE ONE ENTERED

END OF CHAPTER ONE

/

A/N- So how was it? Sorry about the massive group FriendLog conversation, but it was necessary to carry the story along (as well as allowing characters to talk to each other when far away. If you hate these conversations with a passion, I won't include any more on request. There WILL be some action next chapter, and remember, they WILL be playing a video game- they will have battle menus, hit points and all that stuff. R&R please!


	2. Forest of Mists

A/N- Thanks for the reviews, guys! I decided to treat you by publishing Chapter Two early. I have decided that I will not include FriendLog conversations, even though some like them. I think it helps the scenario. Anyway, get ready for some action, cause the kids' have just entered Plane One- but will they survive the first wild encounter?

Enjoy the show!

/

CHAPTER TWO- Plane One -The Plain of Spiders– Forest of Mists

/

Eddy awoke to the fact that he wasn't as dead as he might have been.

Looking around him, all he could see was blue sky, green fields and the hint of mountains on the horizon. The sky stretched on for miles, unblemished, punctuated only by misty clouds in completely regular shapes.

Eddy had never been one to believe in the afterlife, but even so he was overjoyed he'd made it to heaven.

Eddy had, in the time after the Big Picture Show, become not only less of a jerk to everyone (though he was still greedy) but a successful businessperson because of two key ingredients- confidence, that he'd never had until he faced up to his brother, and favour, that he'd never had due to his lack of confidence. He was never out of pocket, and made enough money in a week selling crosswords and comics to indulge him and his friend's new tastes- pizza takeouts, and lots of them.

When he got up, the first thing he noticed was his clothes. His normal clothes had been replaced with a strange set of gear- some kind of light, red plate armour, like you'd see on samurai. He also had a bronze, curving blade in a hilt by the side of his waist that he drew and tossed around, light as a feather.

The second thing that he noticed was the small icon in the corner of his vision that said "menu".

Eddy was not one to take bullshit, and he immediately tried to remove this offending item. However, after several attempts at hitting it away, he deduced it was either a sticker on his eye (he shuddered at the thought) or just not there at all. Shrugging, he tried to look at it in focus when the icon depressed and another ethereal object opened on the other half of his vision.

It was a menu just like in a video game- with options for "Stats", "Map", "Items", "Equipment", "Options" and "Journal" right there. Looking at it, he tried to open the "stats" menu by focusing in on it deeply, like he did the menu command. Suddenly, the icon depressed and another menu opened up over it- strictly on the left side of his vision, so as not to remove the power of eyesight from him completely. He was amazed when it showed a picture of himself, with his kooky gear, and a bunch of letters followed by numbers next to it.

EDDY- LEVEL 1 FIGHTER  
HP- 43  
AP- 12  
ATK- 7  
DEF- 4  
MAG- 4  
MDF- 3  
SPD- 7  
DEX- 5

"Is this some kinda video game? Either that or I'm having some kind of weird afterlife thing…" he muttered to himself. He closed the stats menu and then focused on the "Map" icon- but there was nothing on it. Apparently it hadn't been activated yet. Eddy sighed and looked at the plain.

It stretched on for miles in either direction, with no scenery except for dips or hills and the distant mountains. Come to think of it, there was a large hill coming up to him now that had been blocking his view. Climbing up the steep incline, he took one more step before a white halo appeared around his vision. He turned around – and saw two warriors standing behind him.

His screen had changed, showing his HP and AP, and something called a Limit meter, which wasn't moving at all and seemed to be completely empty. The two warriors approaching him were ninjas, with short katanas hitched behind their black, tight-fitting gear as they crouched to the ground, moving slowly towards him. Most disturbingly, they had eight eyes that were all skull-white. Eddy ran behind the ninjas, who reacted and began to attack, pulling out shuriken and throwing them at him. They thudded harmlessly into the earth, but the ninjas did not show any signs of disappointment as they advanced towards him.

Eddy heard a sound as he thought about attacking them, and suddenly a menu with four options appeared.

ATTACK  
SPECIAL  
MAGIC  
ESCAPE

The ninjas were attacking again. Rolling to the side with a curse, Eddy avoided one katana swing but was struck by the second, which thunked into his flesh with a vengeance. Eddy screamed in pain as he saw his blood run into the soil, with the other ninja readying more shuriken ready to finish him off.

/

Sarah was in a similar place to Eddy, but she could see a whole lot more than he could. The square clouds loomed overhead, the grass still stretched on for miles, and there were still mountains in the distance. But Sarah could see a building- an oriental hut, with a screen door closed to the world. That was weird. Was this some sort of samurai afterlife or something?

She noticed her clothes- they had been replaced with light, red plate armour, just like Eddy's- but her weapon was a crossbow with a set of bronze-tipped arrows in a quiver behind her. She took a few steps to test out the new set of clothes- it was a bit uncomfortable, but was OK nonetheless.

Then she noticed the "menu" icon in the corner of the screen.

(NOTE- So you don't get bored, I'm gonna skip Sarah's discovery of the menu system. Just to speed things along.)

After getting to grips with the menu, she ambled towards the house, which was a good half-mile away. Breaking into a run, she noticed the armour's weight lift, allowing for faster movement. If this WAS a video game, it was very convenient. Drawing up to the house, which seemed oddly silent, she put away her crossbow and opened the paper screen.

/

Eddy moaned and groaned as the number indicated by his HP went down significantly- by the time the numbers had stopped rolling, his former 34 HP reduced to a mere 20. He didn't need Edd to tell him what would happen if it reached zero. Eddy's dwindling consciousness finally noticed the "attack" option, and focused on it, hoping for some kind of special power or something. None whatsoever.

Then he remembered the blade at his side.

Whipping out the blade, he slashed it across the legs of both of the ninja, spurting blood and biting into bone. The attack seemed to do heavy damage, and the ninja with the shuriken collapsed on the ground and, oddly, vanished, leaving only a small bottle of blue liquid and a shard of metal. The other ninja leapt back, readying shuriken from long range, attempting to do some more damage. Eddy noticed his strength was rapidly falling, leaving him vulnerable to long range assault, so he quickly opened the menu and selected "SPECIAL". Only one option was there, and it said:

LEVEL 01 - PROJECTILE SLASH – 3 AP

Selecting it, Eddy saw the AP number on his menu dwindle to 9, and suddenly his sword became enveloped in energy. Slashing at the ninja, he was amazed as the energy around the sword flew off in a curved, boomerang shape and slammed into the ninja, knocking it back and into nothing. The same spoils were left behind as before. Eddy whooped at the conquering of his first adversaries.

Sheathing his blade, he walked to the vial and hard left in the blades of grass and tried to pick them up. He yelped when they melted into white light which flew into his armour, although there was nowhere in there to stow them. The screen showed that he had accumulated a "small energy beverage" and a "mettalite shard", both of which were in his inventory.

"Typical video game…"

Opening the menu and clicking the "Items" option, he was presented with a linear screen holding his shard and liquid. Looking at the liquid, he thought "drink" and lo and behold, the vial was in his hand. Drinking it, he felt a slight spark of energy and his HP rolled back up to 25, reducing the size of the wound in his side. He could not find any use for the shard except for a shitty weapon.

Grabbing and ingesting the other potion, Eddy began up the hill again, this time with no ninja behind him. The hill was high, and he felt about to fall over before he just managed to reach the top. He gasped at the view.

Not only could he see the mountains in great detail, but he could see a village of oriental houses nestled into the mountains guarded from view by mist lower down. There was also a hut far away, with a screen door-

-that someone, in red armour, just pulled open and entered.

Eddy began to go into a run. If he was any example to go by, that could well be another one of his friends.

/

A massive beast sat on a bed of web matter and a throne of stone on a mountain peak that stretched up so highly that it was impossible to see. Below the curtain of mist, the mountain simply ceased to exist- the perfect stronghold. Before the creature sat a huge spider, with pulsing yellow abdomen and a translucent stomach full of skulls visible by cracks in the chitin, grovelling in the creature's wake. The creature boomed out in a voice that both roared with demonic power and skittering clicking, as if it had massive fangs that clacked with each word.

"What is this I hear? Intruders into my realm? Twelve of them? In red armour? Pathetic. Tell our armies to kill them on sight. This land is ours. If, perchance they find one who knows my nature, they may be a threat to my empire's expansion…"

The massive spider nodded fervently. The master was impossible to see and not quake, no matter your race- human, spider or anything else. High-flying birds that got a glimpse of the Master's face actually fainted, and weak-hearted ones just plain died.

"I will tell the Dronesss to handle them, sssir. Ssshould I warn Ssshrogii?"

The master boomed like thunder. "I already have, simpleton. He is waiting in his tower for them to arrive, along with his bodyguard. He is such a fierce warrior that there's no chance he could fall. Still, bait them into his tower. If those below discover I am mortal…"

The massive spider nodded and leapt off the mountaintop, down past rocky ravines and crags that simply ceased to exist under the curtain of mist. So too did its appearance change- where there was once a three-meter behemoth now held a large tarantula, barely a meter in diameter with legs at full stretch. The tarantula landed and scurried off through the plains, towards the misty village and the high mountains.

/

Sarah soon discovered why the room was so eerily quiet.

Both of the occupants in there were long-dead, seated at tables with no flesh left and their heads on the wood. The flies had even abandoned the place, which was in a sorry state of disrepair.

Furniture was broken on the ground, ornamental swords were tarnished, and webbing was thick around the roof of the house, that, though pristine from the outside, looked like it was raided from the interior. Sarah saw a shadow move and drew her crossbow, notching an arrow. It seemed to work like a gun- if an arrow was notched and the string taut she could pull the trigger to snap the fibre forward and fire the arrow.

She crept towards where the shadow was coming from. It seemed to be a strange animal, scratching and chewing at the ground. Concentrating on the shadow, she hit a broken table leg and tripped with an "Oh!"

The creature heard her.

The shadow ran towards her, skittering and leaping and bounding and then-

-it came into view, nothing but a field mouse. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief and then frowned when she heard the clattering of bones. Something, or someone, was moving the bones on the table. With an arrow still notched, she walked through the doorway to the entry hall where she had come through, and looked at the dead people there- and flinched.

They were in a different position, as if they were about to get up from the table. Sarah began to run, but as soon as she turned her back the skeletons moved again, this time when she was looking. The spectres stalked towards her, now fully up from the table, grasping at her with sharpened talons and empty eye sockets. And all the time they made no sound except for the clicking of their bones and an odd, 'twanging' noise every time they moved. Sarah screamed and, with a burst of spontaneous accuracy, loosed her arrow through the skull of the skeleton on the right. It flew off, embedded in the wall, but this made no difference- it was still trying to attack. Sarah struggled to load another arrow, her sense of fear heightening as she readied it. The skeleton on the left, still with a head, ran at her and scratched with sharp claws, knocking Sarah's HP down to 21 which caused her to cry out. She shot the closest skeleton in the arm with a point blank shot that took it clean off. Howling in pain, the skeleton nearest to her snapped off a rib behind clothing and began to swing it around at her, evidently trying to take her head off. She ducked and rolled backwards, out the door. The skeletons hesitated for a moment, and then followed her out. In the light outside, Sarah looked at the skeletons in wonder, and then had a thought.

"They only have clothes on their ribs… which means they have something to hide there!"

Readying an arrow, she loosed it into the chest of the one without a head. The skeleton recoiled and screamed with a high pitch and then fell still, completely unmoving. With green as a contrast, she saw a strange thread stick to the side of the hut and spill out onto the earth, which was almost transparent. Sarah avoided another bludgeon by the remaining skeleton as she leapt over to the dead one. When she ripped open the clothes there, she gasped.

Inside the ribcage, punctured by her arrow, was a spider, sitting on a web that stretched around the whole body that was almost invisible in darkness. The spider had been controlling the skeleton like a puppet from the inside by using the webs as strings! Now armed with new knowledge, she loosed another arrow into the spider inside the other skeleton, which screamed, fell down, and didn't get up. Both of the skeletons disappeared and she was left with two vials of the "small energy beverage" that Eddy had found and two black metal ingots, identified as "ebonite shards". She took both of the potions and then went back into the house. She was just through the doorway when she heard a boy's scream as he fell from the top of a hill and rolled down it like a cylinder- albeit, one dressed in red armour very similar to hers. Something about this boy was familiar, and Sarah found out what it was when he came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.

"Horno-bitch?"

"Asshole?"

It was like a family reunion.

Except with swords and crossbows.

/

Edd was running through the belfries of a town sewer when he tripped up and was caught by the beast following him.

Swinging his stick at the strange beast hard with huge effort, Edd tried to cover his eyes at the eventual bloodflow that would occur from the attack. Sadly, what Edd thought was a hard attack was barely registered by the bipedal ceratopsian, who was trying to crush his life out of him. Edd swung the bladed edge of his staff into the massive "hand" holding him, and wormed out of the small opening that gave him. Landing on the floor, Edd ran a few steps before the beast realised its prey had escaped and charged. Edd flung himself to the side to avoid the charge, while the dinosaurian samurai embedded its horns in the wall.

_I must attack this beast now!_ thought Edd, and, at the mention of the word "attack", his battle menu opened. Selecting the "magic" option, he found himself with three spells available.

LEVEL 01 STEEL MAGICK- EXTEND BLADE – 2 MP  
LEVEL 01 FIRE MAGICK- SPARK – 4 MP  
LEVEL 01 ICE MAGICK- PARTIAL FREEZE – 4 MP

With only 9 MP available, Edd could cast two of these spells at the beast- but which? Edd suddenly had a flash of inspiration and cast his spell by selecting "Partial Freeze". His staff took on a cold pallor, and as he directed a bold of cold energy he felt the backwash sapping away his will. A patch of flesh on the back of the beast's leg froze solid. Now casting "Spark", with the backwash giving him a nasty heat headache, his staff sent forth a bolt of fire the shattered the ice- and the meat of the monster's leg. Holding back nausea at the sight of the blood, Edd's trick, while not only damaging the creature, had made it a quadruped again and unable to turn and get at him. Avoiding its swinging tail, he ran to a ladder in the side of the sewer and climbed out into the misty night, lit up by fires as the city was sacked by demonic creatures. When had it become night? It was the heat of day when they had got here!

… when they had escaped the apocalypse…

Edd felt a pang of guilt. Evidently they had been saved by the game, as per the menus and battle techniques. _But nobody else survived…_

Edd half-considered going down into the sewer again and letting the dinosaur-beast kill him. But what would that achieve? The twelve-strong human race would become the eleven-strong human race. Absolutely nothing good.

He hoped his fellows hadn't fallen prey to the many dangers of this world that Shadowsun had created. But why were they given armour and weapons to survive this place?

Edd's armour was standard red plate, and he had a staff with a blade on the top, allowing him to fight in melee as well as conducting magick. In addition, he had a kabuto, an old samurai warrior's helmet, to replace his sock-hat.

The city he was in was concealed by mist and in the mountains, in a valley gouged by a river many years ago. From here, he could see a mountain that arched into the sky, but didn't seem to exist elsewhere, with a peak above the clouds. He ran through the streets, his staff out as a fairly useless weapon as he was out of MP. Miraculously, he was left alone by the creatures of the night, most of them fighting samurai warriors and (mostly) falling. He was about to leave the city when he suddenly heard a shout from the side of the street.

"Ed-boy! Help Rolf protect his charges!"

Edd gasped. Rolf was here? Turning around, he saw not only the son of a shepherd, but Nazz, Jimmy and May, all trying to fight off a huge spider-beast. Edd joined the fray only after closing his eyes and swearing on it, but indeed he leapt into the fight and hacked at a leg.

Rolf was pretty much the same as he had been in the old series, but he had grown used to technology and now had a FriendLog account, bought his parents all kinds of doohickeys to help on the farm and enjoyed video games, though he still talked as if he had culture shock. He was currently straining against a leg of the two-meter long beast, its urticating hairs ripping his flesh, wearing the same red armour as all the kids were wearing and a warhammer, spiked at one end, lay by him on the floor.

May was perhaps the cul-de-sacian who changed the most- she had actually been quite intelligent all along, which shocked everyone except Edd. (who found out the hard way that Valentine's Day) She had graduated from school with good grades, and became fast friends with Sarah and Nazz, who needed some new "girl talk". She was clad in the same armour as everyone else, though she had a helmet similar to Edd's on her head. She was attempting to cast magick with the staff in her hand, but from the badly burnt hair around her and her moaning, she seemed to be out of MP.

Nazz had become the class hottie due to her rapidly developing figure- every boy wanted her, and every girl was jealous of her. She could use her looks to get her a lot of places (notably out of the odd detention she got) and was good friends with May and Jimmy now that he had finally got himself an iota of strength. She was hacking at the spinneret of the creature with a rapier, and her armour was covered in silk.

Jimmy had worked out. Seriously hard. After Sarah signed him up for a work-out summer camp, he had come back six weeks later weighing twenty pounds more of solid muscle. No longer was he a crybaby, either, because he had resolved to toughen himself up by hanging around the other guys. Though at first they ridiculed him, they soon became fast friends. His armour was gripped by the spider's two chelicerae, fangs hooked around his arms, completely helpless with only a longbow to hand.

Edd brought his staff down hard over the creature's head, hitting against the carapace and jolting the beast with surprise. Jimmy fell down with a grunt, and wiped his brow with a "thanks". He ran back in a manoeuvre that could be seen as cowardice- however, the arrow that impacted in the exoskeleton showed otherwise. The creature roared in pain, and began to recede, releasing Rolf. The son of a shepherd leapt up, grabbed his hammer and began to chase after it, only to be stopped by Edd.

"Think about it, Rolf. It's probably the only non-evil spider here." Indeed, other nightspawn refused to flee even when half-dead. The spider leapt down into the sewers, its home, and later had a massive clash with the ceratopsian that resulted in the spider eating the biggest meal it had had for months. But that is another story.

Huddling around a censer burner on a roof in the city, everyone tried to block out the night's chill with the fire. One question was on everyone's minds, but it was only spoken after twenty minutes of grating silence by a tired Nazz.

"Double D, why are we here? Why aren't we dead?"

Edd had many theories, each as unlikely as the next. But he voiced them anyway.

"Well, ever seen the show _Lost_? Where it all turns up they're dead, but not quite in the afterlife?" Everybody nodded. "I think that this place is similar. Look at it. It's feudal-era Japan. Ancient. It's probably because we were doing it in history class at the end of term. It's made of our memories," said the anxious Edd. Rolf looked at him in the eye. "You aren't telling the full truth, ed-boy. What's your other theory?"

Edd sighed. "I also have an idea that we're in that Shadowsun game we ran at the beginning of the end of the world. Battle menus, weapons based on our personalities, stats… we could be in a video game!"

Jimmy nodded. "If we're the last humans, then let's hope that we aren't all dead after all. We can' be dead. This has to be a video game we're stuck in!" Edd concurred. "Alright, if this is a video game, all we need to do is beat it, and then we'll escape and revert the apocalypse back to never happening. Is that agreed?"

May challenged him. "But did the apocalypse ever happen? How can we be sure it was real?" Rolf was the one who answered. "When family members are alive, we feel a strong blood-tie to them, as you do to your sisters, yes?" May nodded, stunned. "I no longer feel the blood tie to my parents. They are either dead or dying." Rolf's words were cold dread to everyone who felt them.

Everyone in their families, all their friends, everyone they ever knew or knew about was dead, and there was no getting around it.

And that was the worst feeling in the world.

May choked back a tear and stood up. "Then I refuse to rest before we can beat this game! I'll revert everything to normal! Mom!…" and she fell down, unconscious. Everybody realised how tired they were, so Rolf volunteered to stay on watch whilst the others slept on blankets they found rolled up in the back of their armour.

Rolf made a prayer in his foreign tongue and looked at the mist-covered moon above.

"Great Nano… lend me your strength for the times ahead!"

For a moment he felt the warm hand of his grandfather on his shoulder. Rolf looked about, trying to fins the perpetrator of the deed. And then it was gone. Rolf drew his hammer, stood up, and waited till dawn.

/

Eddy and Sarah got on like a house on fire, in the sense that there was the fire burning and the house extinguishing, at the best of times, with Sarah wondering why all the self control she had suddenly vaporised on sight of him and Eddy angry at all the crap she put him through because of that. It was a blissful circle- she losing her control due to some deed he had or had not down, him getting angry, she losing self-control, him getting angry…

And now he had to sleep with this devilwoman.

Not in the sense that 11-year-olds would snigger at, thank you very much, but he had to be in the vicinity of her while sleeping and that was enough for him. Though he was insanely tired because of the wound in his side, Eddy volunteered to go on watch, to look for any ninjas or skeletons that tried to sneak up on them. Truth be told, they hadn't a fire, so unless those ninjas' eyes glowed or something he wouldn't have a clue where they were. More than once Eddy toyed with the idea of abandoning her, but he wasn't a bad person anymore- and if Ed found her there'd be hell to pay.

He walked through the blades of grass, surrounded only by the blackness of the sky and the pallid grip of the moonlight, allowing for little visibility. The world was just endless blackness outside the little light cast by the moon and the house that Sarah was sleeping in.

They had raided the house and had cleaned the bedroom out of spider webs for fear that those skeleton spiders began their grisly meals with living people. They had found very little food, but there was a fruit-bearing tree outside and they found a few rice provisions packed in an airtight container, as if they were conveniently placed for those who came there after the death of the occupants. They soothed their aching hunger and helped their wounds heal, surprisingly, which made the place seem more and more like a video game every day.

The sun was just about to rise when he embedded his sword in the ground and fell to sleep on it.

/

The small tarantula demon that leapt down from the mountain crept through a tiny hole in the roof of the hut, changing its form to being absolutely tiny, only as large as a common house spider. Such an effect is similar to a human holding its breath, for the beast swelled to the tarantula form as it entered. The female was lying on the ground on a blanket, which perturbed it- surely the fabric would have rotted away after it had killed the occupants a month ago? Never minding the complexities, the tarantula swelled to full size and spun a web around Sarah, keeping her knocked out with a narcotic liquid that ran over the fibres. Quickly daubing a message out of fibre on the wall, it webbed her to the roof of its abdomen, shrunk again and crawled out of the hole in the roof, with a miniaturised Sarah stuck to it. The spider broke into a skittering run, moving towards the misty village that its minions had sacked beforehand.

Time to take the third hostage.

/

Rolf was staying ever-vigilant on top of the building safe from the ground creatures when he heard a skittering behind him. He had barely a moment before he was in the same position as Sarah, stuck to the abdomen and knocked out. The massive spider shrunk again and leapt a great leap from the towering building, building a web parachute to glide through the sky and go west of the village. Completely obscured by fog from far away, a misty forest full of autumn trees came into view, with a large tower with open windows in the centre. An armoured glove came out of the window, which the spider landed on, and retracted, where it was revealed to be part of a hulking figure in armour that fully concealed it. The interior of the top floor was wooden floor with a mat in the centre, something like a training dojo, except for the back wall, which was obsidian and engraved with kanji. A large pillar with a spider engraving stood in front of it. There was another figure, clad in red, but it was bound to the wall and appeared to be bleeding. Struggling with the narcotic web, the prisoner got one glance at those who were thrown in with them- and his eyes widened. He got two words out before he fell unconscious again.

"Baby… sister…"

The armoured figure was talking to the giant spider, which had regained full size and was enjoying it.

"Ssso, Ssshrogii, I have them here. No doubt the ressst will come- and fall at the ssslash of your bladesss!"

"Yes, Tsuchigumo. It is advisable that we deal with the prisoners soon, for the web narcotics only seem to last for a day." The figure roared out these words as if it was a sort of beast behind the armour. The spider seemed offended by this. "Are you sssure it'sss not your incredibly loud training downssstairsss?"

Shrogii drew his blade. "If that is your way of dealing with things, then we shall see how you talk with your head on my sword!"

Tsuchigumo leapt back. "Take your temper up againssst the Massster. What a fool you would be to do that!"

Shrogii receded. "Fine. Take your leave. I shall kill them all when they come here." But the spider was already gone.

"You fool. Your overzealousness will be your downfall."

/

Eddy had read the message left by the spider, and was already running to Shrogii's tower in the forest of mists. He stopped for nothing, and avoided the skeletons and ninjas that attempted to attack him. He wasn't taking any more bullshit.

A part of him wondered why he was bothering saving Sarah, who had done nothing but bad to him. He told himself that it was because of Ed's wrath.

At least, that's what he believed.

/

Edd awoke to the sticky feel of webbing.

Yelping, he wrenched his hand from the horrible webs and, in the same moment, saw the horrible message left by Tsuchigumo.

_cOmE tO tHe ToWeR oF sHrOgIi In ThE fOrEsT oF mIsTs FoR yOuR fRiEnDs_

Rolf's warhammer was laid across the floor to act as an arrow to said forest. He gasped, and hurriedly woke his allies.

"What was that for, Double D?" yelled an irate Nazz, who had yet to see the message. As soon as she saw it, she yelped out in shock. "Oh my god! Rolf!" The rest of them saw what had happened and acted similarly. "Double D? Ever heard of this "forest of mists"?" said a nervous Jimmy. Edd looked at the warhammer that lay on the ground. "It's that way. The spider that did this would have given us a clue if this Shrogii wants to meet us. Come on. It's pointing west." The group of tired adventurers leapt down from the building with a grunt, the smoking ruins of the village below them choking them slightly. The wind was with them, and Jimmy plucked a standard from the corpse of a samurai and placed it in his armour. They needed all the morale they could get.

/

Eddy ran through the misty forest trail, a stone path half-concealed by the falling autumn leaves. The scene was especially tranquil in such a misty forest that he stopped for a moment- and whipped out his katana as an armoured figure appeared behind him. The thing did not pause, and instead began to talk in a strange maner, that sounded like he was a frog croaking out every word.

"Come with me, young one, if you wish to challenge Master Shrogii." With no better option, and the strange strength that the frog-warrior seemed to exude (he carried a halberd on his back that was taller than him) he decided to follow him. The winding autumn path soon came to a kind of hedge maze, and, even with the multi-tiered tower coming into view, he would have gotten lost on the winding path. Eventually, after many twists and turns, he finally saw the oaken door of the tower, guarded by two gryphon statues. The toad warrior knocked three times, and the door opened with great majesty.

Within was what seemed to be an armoury. Swords, shields, helmets and body armour with full face coverage were stacked in piles in rooms off the entrance hall. The steps upstairs were empty, and Eddy began to make for them. However, the toad warrior slipped in front of him and opened his visor, revealing an amphibian face.

"Do you accept the Challenge of Five Warriors for the lives of those taken by the spider god?"

Eddy nodded. This seemed like it would lead to Shrogii. "I guess I fight and kill four guys, then fight that bastard Shrogii at the top floor? I accept it. Where's the first guy?"

The toad warrior drew his halberd. "I will be your first opponent. See if you can beat me, the Toad Master!"

The toad immediately attacked with a thrust that caught Eddy offhand, reducing his HP to 27. He leapt back and charged it, stabbing it in the side and thrusting under the armour. The toad screamed and attempted to decapitate him, but he left his legs unguarded- Eddy swung his blade deep into the toad's leg, causing critical damage. Blood spurted out again from the cut, splattering along the dojo floor. His foe kneeled on the ground, spewing out blood, and threw his helmet off, allowing his wispy hair to flow out. Eddy hesitated in his kill- this was an old creature, a weak creature. Why should he end its life?

A slash crushed into him, forcing him to kneel in pain as his HP became 9. The toad stood before him, bloodied blade in hand, hobbling forward in pain but with an air of superiority. "You fool, hesitating before an old man. Just because I am old does not mean I am weak. This has been your first and last lesson in combat." The old man drew his blade, and readied it to decapitate the kneeling boy. He expected a single tear of regret to issue from the boy as his head came flying through the air. But the boy…

…was grinning.

The toad master groaned in pain as the boy's katana was driven through his stomach, such pain he had never experienced before. He kneeled on the ground, in total shock that he could die to such an inexperienced warrior.

"And this was your last lesson in combat- never lecture Eddy Skipper McGee!"

The toad felt his spirit soar, despite his imminent death. "Thank you, warrior, for my final fight. Go up to the top floor and you will find Shrojii- there are no other warriors left alive to fight you. I know you will climb the plains and prevail in the end, and I hope you defeat the dark master of this land. Goodbye…" and the master died, his body disappearing completely and leaving a pile of crystals, a vial of blue liquid and a pile of gold coins.

Suddenly, on the old master's death, Eddy felt a great surge of energy- a Level Up, all the way to Level 4. He sheathed his sword and took the spoils, swearing on the memory of the destroyed world to slay Shrojii, kill that damn spider and destroy their master.

/

END OF CHAPTER TWO

/

A/N- So how did you like it? As you can see, Plane One is a samurai-themed world, and you can vote for the theme to Plane Two in my profile poll. R+R, and keep watching!


	3. Steel, Blood and Fire

A/N- Wow, I'm getting loads of ideas from people for this story! Plane 2 will be in Chapter 5 or 6, hopefully, if all goes to plan, so keep voting! (I have a 4-way tie at the moment!). Just to clarify, even though Shrogii would be seen weak compared to even he first miniboss in Plane 2, he's still insanely strong here, so think of each plane as a complete resetting of the kid's power. Anyway, you came here to see a big armoured guy getting his ass kicked, right? Well…

…enjoy the show!

/

CHAPTER THREE- Plane One- The Plain of Spiders – Steel, Blood and Fire

/

The tranquil, misty forest was completely silent except for the crunching boots of those who had just entered it.

Edd, Jimmy, May and Nazz were mystified by the tranquil beauty of the path, which lead on for several hundred meters before entering an autumn hedge maze. They moved to the hedge wall, and began to walk into the maze before a large, quadruped animal in full body armour leapt in front of them. Every time it spoke, they could have sworn it roared.

"You don't know what you're getting into, fools… I will take you to Shrogii's tower. Do you accept my guidance?" Nazz began to protest. "You're serious? No. I think it's a trap. No way would you take us to that tower!" The tiger-warrior drew two short blades from hilts on its back, holding them in oddly hand-like appendages. "If you are not here to challenge Shrogii, you are an intruder. And my duty is to slay all those who intrude in the Forest of Mists!" She quickly relented. The tiger-warrior turned around and lead a trotting, winding path through the autumn maze. Every now and then Edd was sure he saw the skull of a long-dead warrior on the ground, but he continued, if wary. After what seemed like hours, the gryphon-flanked oak door came into view, which opened after three knocks. The tiger ambled in, and was about to challenge them to the Challenge of Five Warriors when he heard the sounds of a fight upstairs.

"Stay here, fools. I will investigate this problem. If you have moved by the time I come back, I will slay you myself!" The tiger leapt up the stairs and was soon out of sight, and Jimmy looked to his companions.

"Rolf's up there? Then why should we listen to that tiger? We need to save our friends!" he exclaimed. May quickly agreed. "Big, strong monsters are always near the end of a video game. If we can beat this one, maybe we can win the game!" Edd countered her. "But then there's still the spider that kidnapped Rolf. That's going to be tough to kill, too." Everyone nodded and headed up on the stairs.

As soon as they reached the second floor, which was a white-walled oaken-floored dojo, they were stopped by another armoured animal- this time a bull, with swords for horns and spiked armour. "Fools, intruding in this tower! I will run you down!" The bull warrior charged straight into the group of adventurers, who barely jumped out of the way in time- May's foot was caught by the stamping feet of the bull, her HP becoming 21. As it tried to free itself from the wall, Jimmy rained longbow shots on it, some bouncing off the armour and others sticking into flesh, causing rivulets of blood to leak out over the grey armour. The bull roared and lashed out with its tail, that was extraordinarily thick and carrying a ball and chain, that caught Jimmy in the stomach and knocked him down. Having pulled itself free, the bull charged Nazz straight on, and succeeded in goring her- but her rapier was longer that the sword-horns the bull had, and had broken through the bull's skin, flesh and skull and was embedded in the beast's brain. The bull screamed and vanished, leaving Nazz's HP 19 and Jimmy's 16. However, on the bull's death they all felt a surge of power as the experience from the bull filled their heads, and their HP rolled up to full and then some. A message on everybody's vision showed that they had Levelled Up to Level 2 and were now stronger than ever. Edd opened his "stats" menu again, and looked at his increases.

EDD LEVEL 2 MAGE  
HP- 29 (+4!)  
MP- 16 (+7!)  
ATK- 3 (+1!)  
DEF- 4 (+1!)  
MAG- 8 (+2!)  
MDF- 7 (+2!)  
SPD- 4 (+1!)  
DEX- 10 (+5!)

Edd looked up, and saw another challenger had appeared from a room off the side- this one a lion in full armour. "Face me!" it roared as it drew and swung about its bladed staff as it charged. Jimmy gladly obliged with an arrow aimed at its face.

/

Eddy winced and moaned as Shrogii's sword embedded itself in the floor next to his face. The master swordsman roared in anger.

"Get up! What kind of fool would challenge me and then just sit about on the floor moaning! Up I said!" The massive warrior kicked Eddy up, who leant on his sword and charged, cutting into his leg armour and creating a chink. However, before he could thrust his sword in there, he was smacked aside by the flat of Shrogii's sword and flew two meters to his right in pain. Landing upright and stabilizing with his katana, he ran at him again but was cut off by a bolt of searing fire. Aghast, Eddy saw the flames from inside the helmet dissipate and become empty and black again.

Eddy selected the "Special" command on his battle menu and prepared to attack, by sapping 7 of his 28 AP to utilise LEVEL 03- SPEED CHARGE. Running forward at incredible speed, he disappeared momentarily, reappeared, disappeared, reappeared in a different place, disappeared-

-and reappeared with his sword ready to slash Shrogii's neck.

The confused warrior had no time to counterattack. The sword bit deep into his neckguard, lopping bits off, and caused a small cut on his throat. He smiled. He'd never had such damage in years. But the fun was soon to end, as one end of Eddy's katana spun wildly into the wall, broken in two from the impact. Eddy gasped in horror. "Oh shit! What a stupid katana, to break just when I was gonna get him!" The huge swordsman's lizard-like tail came out and smacked him into the wall where the webbed hostages were, causing a horrible cracking noise to emerge from both impacted. Eddy fell down, his weapon, bones and pride broken. Shrogii spread his draconic wings and roared out a challenge.

"Will any worthy opponent face me?"

/

The other party was on the fourth floor, fighting off several large, armoured animals with weapons drawn. Jimmy loosed arrows at the holes in visors, the occasional one hitting flesh and causing the animal fighter to screech. A bird with bladed wings swooped past Edd, goring him in the side, and two armoured bulls tried to skewer him with their swords. But Edd stood still, full of fear at what was about to happen. The two bulls hit him, and he screamed in pain as his HP was reduced to a paltry, single-digit number.

Then, the Limit bar, on the side of his battle screen, filled up with a sound.

A "Limit" option became available on his battle menu. Selecting it, Edd became full of a powerful energy, coursing around his staff and circulating around his body. The room filled with green light as Edd executed LIMIT BREAK- CIRCLE OF LIGHTNING.

Suddenly, a circular rune was burned into the floor beneath Edd's feet, forcing the bulls back into the wall with unparalleled force. The three circles of the rune expanded and stated spinning, lightning appearing in the air around the caster. The electricity began to move with the circles, and suddenly they started spinning at an incredible speed, creating a veritable vortex that all the enemies in the room were sucked into, and try as they might to escape they couldn't get out. Bolts of arcing lightning leapt from one half of the cyclone to the other, through the warrior animals, and then another, and another. Bolts of this lightning continued to strike the foes in the centre before they were completely vaporised, spoils flying out all over the room- stacks of coins, vials of fluid, pieces of metal- and coming to rest on the floor. The tornado died down, the room completely wrecked, leaving Edd panting on the floor, though fully healed. May, Jimmy and Nazz came over to him.

"How'd you do that, Double D?" said a bemused Nazz, completely amazed at the attack. A nervous Edd surveyed the room and gasped. "Messy messy messy!" he exclaimed as he tried to clean up all the broken armour with his staff as a broom. May and Nazz laughed despite themselves. Jimmy called to all three of them. "Come on! Shrogii's on the next floor!" The four warriors advanced up to the next floor, knowing full well that their greatest challenge yet was on top of that flight of stairs.

/

"Damn, I know how to fly this thing, ok?" said another warrior in red, this one inside the compartment of an oaken flying machine with two fireworks strapped to the sides. She was wearing a helmet, but this one covered her eyes, and a lance was strapped to her back. It was Lee, and she was none too pleased.

Over the years, Lee had become a bit of a bad role model- she mixed with the wrong crowds, did the wrong things and had take up smoking. She had a strong sense of justice though, and when it came to "someone foolin' around with her sisters, they better scrammo or taste the pain."

Also in the machine were three other kids all dressed in red- none other than Marie, Kevin and Jonny, with a broadsword, shortbow and mace respectively. They were all trying to fit into the compartments on the flying machine that Lee was driving, though it wasn't going well.

With time, Marie had become the middle sister in all respects in her family- age, size, intelligence and social status. She generally got on well with kids at school, and she had once smoked but kicked the habit.

Kevin had mellowed out a lot since the Big Picture Show, and had even become friends with Ed and Edd, and friendly rivals with Eddy, at the expense of alienating Jonny, Jimmy and Sarah a bit. He had also started a bunch of classes that he liked, such as metal and wood shop, and so he had graduated from school with a very good report.

Jonny had become a bit of a darker person, ever since Plank was killed by some seniors. He was still a tree-lover, but now he got involved with it with his parents- woodcutter sabotage, police officer brawls- and as such nobody really understood him anymore.

The flying machine was an old box-winged device, with two firecrackers tied to the wings, and several auxiliary batteries tied to the side. It had four seats, made of straw, and just enough space for everyone to fit in- if they squeezed in tight enough. Unfortunately, the plane was not designed to fit in four armoured warriors, and it was a very tight fit indeed. Everyone was vying for the larger front seat, that had the most room.

"I know what I'm doing, OK! Just light the damn fireworks!" Kevin protested. "This thing looks as safe as a plank of wood. What if the sparks burn it?" Jonny moaned. "Idiots… just go already!" Marie shrugged and lit the fireworks on the sides. Immediately, the firecrackers burst into action, and fire began to burst from the ends. Kevin covered his head. Lee put on a piloting helmet that was in the glove compartment and pressed the aviator goggles down.

The plane's wheels began to move, and suddenly they were in the air, moving at a massive speed for the era. The distance between the mountain and them started to fall, and soon they were halfway between the village and the massive rock formation. Something whipped past Marie's face as she looked out the side.

"What was that?"

A spider with a web parachute was gliding alongside the vehicle, preparing to land on the wing. As soon as it did so, it bit down and cracked the "balsa wood" of the wing, hampering steering. Marie mashed it with her broadsword, the blade more crushing the insect than cutting. More spiders suddenly appeared from the wind, out of the range of the mace or sword of Jonny and Marie. Kevin notched his bow and loosed arrows at the web-parachutes, knocking the spiders out of the sky. Marie and Jonny took up the auxiliary batteries and started shooting, rockets flying through the air and slaying arachnids.

From above, it looked like some kind of space-invaders type game. Rockets slew several, Lee barrel-rolled and impaled them with her lance, and Kevin's arrows killed many more. However, all the spiders parted as a huge tarantula, flying with a massive web-shield, appeared in front of them. Rockets bounced off it, and Lee's driving couldn't shake it off. The spider shrieked and began to shoot web projectiles at them, one catching the side of the plane, taking off a firecracker.

The plane wheeled from side to side, and spiralled off towards the mountain, which was so much closer. Lee wrestled with the vehicle's steering, changing wing orientation, and attempted to steer away from the giant spider, which was hurling webs, while the others in the back were screaming their heads off. One caught the front of the vehicle, obscuring view, and everyone screamed as the plane cartwheeled into the mountainside.

The firecracker impacted with a tremendous explosion that shook the mountain's base, causing a rockslide that covered the site of the impact with spiked rocks. The plane was completely buried, and the occupants missing.

That which sat on top of the mountain saw this, and smiled. Or as close as you can come to smiling with mandibles.

/

Shrogii stood on the site of his previous victory and waited for the inevitable challengers to approach him. His animal warrior audience was severely annoyed by the wait, when in fact the armoured dragon had been standing, unmoving, for ten minutes now, his heart slowing and his blood cooling down. This was something that had only happened before in his home land- he had completely destroyed the forest he had grown up in as well as all his kin in a rage after another had challenged his pride and lost. If he lost his temper here, he could destroy everything…

The door to his dojo opened with a clang as four warriors, clad in red, stepped out covered in blood all over their weapons and armour, each of them was Level 4 and powerful enough to take him on. Shrogii laughed at their appearance, all brandishing their weapons. He turned around and spread his wings, with bones replaced with metal, and took off his helmet, exposing his black, draconic head, complete with fangs, forked tongue and horns.

"Hahahaha… So you have fought your way up my tower? My animal samurai are lethality incarnated- though you have still bested them. Truly you are prodigy warriors… I know you will fight well against me, and you are sharp of mind enough to take on the Trickster, Tuschigumo. Maybe you can hold your ground against the Master's visage. Come, I will heal your wounds." True to his words, a burst of blue light emitted from his hand and Edd, Jimmy, May and Nazz were completely healed, HP returning to a large figure (53 for Edd). "Now, face me! Draw your weapons, ready your magicks and notch your arrows! I am ready for anything you can muster!"

_**MINIBOSS- Shrogii, Draconic Samurai Lord**_

Dramatic music started playing from absolutely nowhere, confusing the party. Shrogii put his helmet back on, drew his sword and waited for them to come at him. Jimmy notched his arrows and loosed one at him, but all they did was ping off his armour harmlessly. Edd cast LEVEL 01 ICE MAGICK- PARTIAL FREEZE, but the bolt of icy energy did nothing to the dragon's ebony armour. Nazz leapt up at him, and stabbed his armour with her rapier- his armour blocking the blow regardless of the attack strength. Shrogii countered with a sword swipe, crumbling armour and dealing heavy damage to Nazz. Jimmy tossed a dozen arrows through the air, but all of them failed to impact in Shrogii's body. Nazz leapt back to the rest of the squad, who rallied and began to talk.

"He's invincible! His armour's too strong to penetrate, and there are no weak links!" cried Nazz in hysteria, whilst coughing from the damage. She swigged a vial of blue liquid to regenerate her health, and it did so slowly but effectively. Edd came up with a possible solution. "How about a combo attack? Like, a lightning spell combined with a rapier strike could destroy his defences!" Nazz nodded. "So, charge me!"

Edd cast LEVEL 04 THUNDER MAGICK- JOLT on Nazz's rapier, which suddenly began glowing with a weak electrical current. She leapt through the air, and attempted to stab Shrogii's helmet for heavy damage. However, Shrogii countered with a swipe of his sword, his blade flashing through the air. Shrogii sheathed his sword and held out his hands that glowed with blue energy.

"BOSS RUBRIC- Offense Shield!"

A set of flechettes appeared around the body of the dragon, glowing bright blue and whirling around his body. They formed a shield of ethereal might, blocking Nazz's thrust and throwing her into the wall with circular motion. Nazz winced and fell to her knees. Shrogii slashed her three times and then attacked with a stomp, dealing massive damage and knocking Nazz's HP into Critical- below 1 HP, but not quite dead. "NAZZ!" shrieked May, who immediately ran from her position and carried Nazz to the sidelines, such a manoeuvre allowed by the dragon knight. The warrior ran at Edd, slashing him in the side, and then unleashing the flechettes in wider arcs, cutting through Edd's flesh- but exposing their true positions.

As Shrogii laughed, suddenly a flechette fell down and landed on the floor- an arrow quivering in its side. Another dropped, then another- soon all the flechettes were down on the floor, their magic broken. Jimmy stood with his bow up and pure fury in his eyes as he sent a flurry of arrows at the armoured figure's spaulders, which landed in the softer metal easily. May, back from the wings, unleashed a Partial Freeze spell at the armour, freezing half of it- and then Jimmy's arrows shattered the frozen half, exposing chainmail. Shrogii roared and swiped at the archer, cutting his stomach open, and then spun around and released a gout of intense flame at Edd, who leapt out of the way. The dragon lord flew up and stomped at May, who fell down in pain, and then slashed at her spine, rendering her Critical. Jimmy moaned and drank a potion, restoring his health and closing his wound. Jimmy bellowed in anger and loosed arrows at the exposed chainmail, starting to draw blood as they thunked through the individual holes. Shrogii laughed and slashed at the air, releasing a shockwave that knocked back the archer. He took flight, and grabbed the two remaining combatants, flew out the window and onto the roof, where he threw them down- though they were stopped in their descent by a spectral shield that faded as they landed on it. Shrogii descended and healed the two.

"Now there are only three combatants left. This is when blood is shed, and one side fails to fight due to fatigue or death. Come at me with all your strength!" Shrogii roared and vented flame at the sky. Edd and Jimmy looked at each other. This was going to be the hardest fight of their lives.

/

The side of the mountain was once again quiet, the rockslide that had just occurred settling down. Spiders skittered away from the impact site, but remained on watch, just in case there were any survivors.

A rock dislodged itself from the pile, thrown by red-gloved hands from the side of the mountain. A helmeted red warrior pulled itself out, shortbow behind it, hauling out an unconscious pair of red-dressed fighters with a mace and broadsword. Sitting down on the rubble, Kevin sighed and began to shift apart rocks before one was hurled out at his head, and a dusty Lee climbed out of the wreckage.

"Why couldn't we have bought the plane off the non-dodgy salesman?" asked an irate Kevin, moaning in pain. Though they were of a decent level 6 all round due to their combat against the demons that assaulted the city, they were still weakened by the damage. They both looked out at the world below them that seemed so small below, and listened to the wind whistle past the rocky crags.

"What d'you suppose is up here, other than that arch-demon the crazy woman were yappin about?" inquired Lee. Kevin shrugged. "Probably just another mega-spider thing. Hopefully we can beat the shit out of it and get on with it." Lee shrugged as well. "Damn… another of those?" She laughed. "Well, I'll pound its face in fer last time!" Lee picked up her sister while Kevin picked up Jonny, and they proceeded around the high, rough mountainside. The path was dotted with shrubs, and every now and then they could hear skittering, which was probably a trick of the wind. As they moved forward, they saw huge spiders, each half a meter long, and killed them with single weapon swipes. Experience began to pile as they killed several dozen of the arachnids, but not enough to level up- they were Level 8 after all.

As they turned a corner, eight glowing spots of light appeared from a cave. Suddenly they were all webbed to the wall, separated from their allies, the web fibres drying fast. The spider they had fought before, a huge beast that wasn't Tsuchigumo, but about her size was crawling about on a webbed cave wall. Lee severed her webbing with her lance and freed Kevin, and the two warriors drew their weapons and trained them on the massive spider. What followed was an epic clash of human against spider, but that is another story.

/

Shrogii immediately went on the attack, his katana swiping through the air and threatening to knock Jimmy off completely. The archer countered with a shock of arrows, all of which found their mark in Shrogii's shoulder. Roaring as a jet of blood seeped out, the dragon grabbed an extra plate of armour from his chest, which had three layers of obsidian covering it, and slapped it onto his arm, binding it with a talisman of sealing. All arrows directed onto it would simply bounce off, and those which hit the seal itself were reflected back into Jimmy, shocking the wounded archer. Edd cast spells to attack, but the armour was still too thick, and he was running out of MP-restorative items. Shrogii breathed a jet of flame, which scorched Jimmy and hit Edd, who attempted to block with his staff.

As the ferocious flames hit it however, Edd noticed that his staff was pulsing with absorbed fire energy, making it hard to hold. Swinging it at Shrogii, a bolt of searing fire emitted from the end, smacking into him and knocking him down with severe damage. The powerful seals around Shrogii's armour faded from view, the red lines of his black metal stopping glowing. Unleashing arrows into Shrogii, Jimmy found that this time they were doing some damage- causing blood to leak out from penetrations. Shrogii roared in pain, which was increased by LEVEL 02 WIND MAGICK- GUST which tore into him, and immediately cast a Boss Rubric:

"BOSS RUBRIC- Armour Seal!"

One-hundred and eight paper talismans now revealed on Shrogii's thick armour glowed, and became the red lines again, becoming glowing lines of protection. Shrogii cast the flechette spell again, and he redoubled his attack with another rubric, Spectral Sword. True to name, this created four afterimages of the dragon's sword every time he swung it, all of which had a solid presence. He struck Jimmy, who was also hit by the other four blades, lacerating him in several places and leaving him Critical. Edd screamed and held out his staff, his MP drained and only one spell remaining. Shrogii landed in front of him.

"Now do you see? You may be able to take on Tsuchigumo's tricks, but if you cannot defeat me you will never destroy her physical form in combat! Now, taste my ultimate attack!"

Shrogii felt his blood run hot and his heart rate increased- such a feeling he had only had when he killed his family accidentally, and was placed into exile. Flying up in the air, he felt his body heat up as he breathed fire around it, completely encasing himself in flame.

"ULTIMATE RUBRIC- Flaming Phoenix Convergence!"

The clouds parted around the dragon as the fire silhouette grew and eventually became a massive flame phoenix. Storm clouds began to buckle and create friction as his flames turned around and aimed themselves at Edd.

And suddenly, Edd had an idea.

"**Bolt!**"

The lightning bolt arced from his staff to the friction-filled clouds, creating a reaction in the skies. Atoms of water moved together and created strong friction, crackling with lightning that struck the other atoms. Soon, a massive electrical storm was brewing in the atmosphere. The friction was so powerful that a lightning bolt was due to be discharged at any time to the highest, most conductive object on the earth.

And what was so high in the air and so conductive it could attract lightning?

The dramatic music stopped as Shrogii realised what was about to happen and descended so fast it was almost blinding. However, though Shrogii was fast, the speed of light was faster, and the dragon was stuck with a lightning bolt so strong it should have blown him apart. The dragon's flames disappeared and the fried dragon crashed through the ceiling of the dojo, landing with a loud thwack on the mat. Edd leapt down, taking the wounded Jimmy with him.

Shrogii was lying on the floor, smoking and roaring in pain. Drawing his charred sword, he stuck it in the floor and used it as a crutch.

"Amazing… you managed to kill me… with such a tactical manoeuvre… you will one day be a strong warrior… I have no shame or regrets to losing my life to you. I shall heal all your friends and release those webbed with my flames." True to form, the webs burned away and the bright blue light recovered all of those wounded. "I will also give you the Spider Key to Mount Arachne. Wait here." The dragon limped over to the spider-printed pillar and shattered it with a single punch. A small, engraved key appeared from the rubble, floating with ethereal majesty. "That… will create… the lower part of the mountain… so you can climb up it. There you will fight… Tsuchigumo… inside the caves… and then my master… the Gumo-Oni… at the peak… Now… I have one final thing to say before I die…" The dragon beckoned Edd forward and whispered something to him. The dragon sighed, and then vanished completely.

From the silhouette issued spoils of war- stacks of gold coins, several potions, hordes of element shards and a black metal katana. The weapon disappeared, and reappeared inside Eddy's hands. A message appeared inside the scam-boy's head.

_**You are the chosen wielder of Shirakuroittou-no-Yuuruyoku, the Blade of Courage. Use it well.**_

Tossing his broken bronze weapon, Eddy threw his scabbard in the air and landed it on the blade, sheathing it in an unorthodox way. He opened his mouth before he was tackled and grabbed by an overjoyed Ed, in red armour with a set of kunai chained to his wrists.

"Eddy! I finally found you!"

"Ed! I can't believe it!" The katana-wielding youth looked at his lifelong friend with happiness, and Edd soon joined them. "What happened, numbskull? Did you fight this guy and lose?" Ed nodded. "I bet you thought he had Sarah hostage! Speaking of which, she's here now." Sarah ran to her brother, hugged him around the middle, blushed and stepped back. The rest of the kids reunited with Sarah and Eddy, and Rolf reunited with his warhammer, that May had carried to him.

It was then they noticed that the room was deathly silent. All the animal samurai had disappeared from view, whether dead or fleeing. Above, the storm Edd had created was brewing, rain pouring through the hole left by Shrogii's corpse. Edd picked up the Spider Key, and began to read the inscription before a horrible cracking met their ears.

Evidently the dragon-samurai's impact on the floor was enough to break the foundations of the tower, and it swayed ominously in the breeze. Eddy ran out the door, beckoning for everyone else to run with him. The tower was cracking as they moved, their footfalls causing the tower to sway, and by the time they passed the gryphon-flanked doors, which were wide open the tower was at a 45 degree angle before collapsing off the side of the cliff at the end of the autumn grove, the massive armoury-tower splintering at the rockface and falling deep into a misty crevasse. Everyone stooped to catch their breaths as the foundations collapsed and left the first floor of the tower standing in ruins.

The animal samurai had completely disappeared, and there were no tracks in the misty autumn maze. "That's a load of crap!" said an annoyed Sarah, who had never gone through the maze before. Everyone pondered on the solution as the rain poured down, until Eddy came up with the idea to just slash their way through the grove. Shirakuroittou-no-Yuuruyoku blazed with white fire as it slicked through the autumn hedges, burning the carefully tended groves to the ground as a fitting salute to the once-flaming dragon samurai who had ruled the place. As they moved on, Edd picked up the key again and read the inscription.

_I am the keyhole that has always existed._

Edd looked at the spidery key, pointed it at the mountain and felt it grow hot.

This would be a difficult hunt.

/

END OF CHAPTER 3

/

A/N- Short chapter is short 0_0 because I'm off on holiday, with limited internet access, today. This chapter was beta-read by gamechanl44. Anyway, I can announce that Plane Two is gonna be set in a modern city that's under bomb threat- the kids must disengage the weapon before 24 hours elapse to stop their deaths. Anyway, I'll write some stuff while I'm on holiday.

Adios for now!


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